Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Quote, Unquote ‘The business school is the only reason I came to USC. For the amount you pay, it’s probably the best Value in education.’ Stuart Graham, finance sophomore Whe (Bamecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Editorial Board Kenley Young • Editor in Chief Brad Walters • Managing Editor Brock Vergakis • Viewpoints Editor Peter Johnson • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Amateur athletics no place for gambling One of the biggest problems facing collegiate athletics in the past decade has been gambling. NCAA point-shaving viola tions reached an all-time high in the ‘90s, and there are probably more cases of it out there than have been caught by the NCAA. Amateur athletics should not have to face the pollution that is the gambling world. Congress is proposing legislation that would make gambling on amateur athletics illegal in all 50 states. This legislation must be passed, and every student should petition his or her home state’s senator and their local representative to petition for the passing of this bill. Las Vegas oddsmakers set the tone for point spreads printed in newspapers and magazines across the country. Those who make bets based upon these point spreads have a lot of money to earn, and often will do anything in their power to ensure they come out on the winning end of their wager — including buying off players. By eliminating this system of gambling and the large payoffs as sociated with it, the incentive for manipulating the outcome of an amateur sporting event is significantly decreased. Amateur athletics are supposed to be played for the love of the game, not the almighty dollar. Our student-athletes play their hearts out each and every time they set foot on the field, and should not have to worry about anybody being bought off. Even if the outcome of the game is not affected, it’s still tainted any time this occurs. College athletes are already exploited enough. Thousands make money off of them even though the athletes can receive no financial compensation for their talents. By eliminating this type of gambling, the exploitation of our athletes will be greatly re duced. It is an absolute necessity that gambling on amateur athlet ics in Nevada be banned. Three Rivers festival proves successful Congratulations to Columbia for its efforts this past weekend to make the city’s first 3 Rivers Music Festival a resound ing success. For the most part, the event ran smoothly, and the city experi enced relatively few traffic or crowd-control problems. And de spite Saturday’s chilly, inclement weather, fans still turned out in droves to see some of America’s most popular acts, including Ver tical Horizon, Edwin McCain, Cowboy Mouth and headliners Widespread Panic and Wilson Pickett. The festival helped Columbia prove that it can still attract big name artists. And fortunately for the city, the Confederate flag controversy and the NAACP boycott didn’t affect turnout. In fact, with audience attendance peaking at about 25,000 on Saturday, the 3 Rivers Festival restored some of the city’s dwin dling reputation as a viable music scene. Maybe civic leaders will now recognize that Columbia has a genuine need for a laige music venue — something far more accommodating than the Township Auditorium and in far better condition than the Coliseum. Perhaps Columbia, too, can build from its success with the 3 Rivers Festival and convince more traveling shows to make stops here in the future. It can only serve to benefit business and enrich the local art and music culture. The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of The University erf South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. . The Gamecock AOORESS The Gamecock Amy Goulding 1400 Greene Street jcll,ar..in.Ch'tf £*“ Columbia SC 29208 Brad Waltm photo Editors T: . ... D 11U Managing Editor Will Gillaspy Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Brock Vergakis Online Editor Stuoekt Media Area code 803 Viewpoints Editor Peter Johnson Advertising 777-3888 Clayton Kale Asst. Viewpoints Editor Classified 777-1184 News Editor Kelly Haggerty pax * 777-6482 Brandon Larrabee Patrick Rathbun Offjce 777-3888 Associate News Editor Asst. News Editors Rebecca Cronican MacKenzie Craven Gamecock Area code 803 Ann Marie Miani Asst EtCetera Editor Editor gckeddsc.edu 777-3914 EtCetera Editors Elizabeth Rod News gamecocknewsdhotmail.com 777-7726 David Cioninger Asst. Sports Editor Viewpoints gamecockviewpointsdhotmail.com Shannon Rooke Rob Fleming * Etc. gcketcdsc.edu 777-3913 Sports Editors Asst. Encore Editor Encorelgamecockencoredhotmail.com 777-3913 Kristin Freestate Charles Prashaw Sports gamecocksportsdhotmail.com 777-7182 Copy Desk Chief Shawn Singleton Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Renee Oligny Charlie Wallace Submission Policy copy tqnor oemor rmier» Kevin Langston Emily Streyer Letters to the ed.tor or guest columns are welcome £ncore £ditor Editorial Contributor from all members of the Carolina community. Letters Student Media should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an . . , . . Ellen Parsons Business Manager opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Director Sherry Holmes Both must include name, phone number, profes- Su5an Kjng Classified Manager sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten Creative Director Erik Collins submissions must be personally delivered to Russell Kris Black Faculty Adviser House room 333. E-mail submissions must include Julie Burnett Jonathan Dunagin telephone number for confirmation. ^odd ^°°^s The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, ,,, . rfii k r ' style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub- CrM,jve Services Melissa Millen lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can Kenton Watt Brantley Roper be provided by the submitter. Advertising Manager Nicole Russell Call 777-7726 for more information. Carolyn Griffin Advertising Staff College Press Exchange Campus Issues Crime shows ugly side of USC I have com pletely lost faith in my fellow man. I’ve never thought too highly of my species, and af ter an incident last week, I’ve decided I hate all people. Last Tues day night, some spineless cow ard broke into my car. He broke out one of my windows tn ppX in What did he take? Three quarters. I hope he was able to buy a lot of crack with that money! I think John Travolta said it best in “Pulp Fiction”: “You don’t fuck with a man’s car. Youjustdon’tdoit.” For be ing a heroin addict, he knew his stuff. This worthless sack of crap risked go ing to jail for 75 cents. Seventy-five cents! When he did it, he probably wasn’t think ing about me. He was most likely think ing about free CDs, sunglasses, electron ics and anything else that might be found in a car. He probably didn’t think about my reaction when I found the broken win dow, or how much money it would cost me to replace it. I doubt this guy thought about me standing in the parking lot, taping agaibage bag over the hole where glass used to be, wondering how I would come up with the money to replace it. I wish he would. I wish he and every other vandal and thief would realize how much they are needlessly hurting the peo ple they steal from. Most thieves either don’t have the mental capacity to under stand this or have so much unfocused anger they don’t care. I could ramble on and on about how much I wish I could have been there to catch him do it. I could describe in de tail what I would have done to him with a Louisville Slugger. But, I wasn’t there and will most likely never know who did it. So naturally, I need to decide who else I can blame. The police? I could argue that there should be cameras in all parking lots. I could say that the USCPD should patrol the lots more often. I could even claim economic discrimination. Students who can pay $160 to park in a garage enjoy more security (which still doesn’t say much) than those who pay $20 to park in overcrowded gravel pits. Should only those students with a garage space have decent security? I could blame the uni versity for all these things. But I won’t. When all is said and done, the lowlife criminal is to blame. Why is he to blame? Did he have a rough childhood? Did emotional in juries force him to break my window and steal my change? Or do people just suck? I say it’s the latter of the three. This situation reminded me of some thing my mother told me when I was young. We were walking out of a grocery store and saw two men yelling at each oth er. The confrontation turned violent when one of the men threw a punch. My moth er quickly got me in the car and we left. Later, I asked her why the two men were fighting. She told me, “People can be pretty rotten sometimes, Philip.” Indeed, people are rotten. That’s why we do so many of the things we do. That’s why my car was broken into; that’s why those two men were fighting in front of my mother and me. People are bad by na ture. Throughout history, people have had a natural instinct to hurt other people. Am I offering a solution? No, there isn’t one. The incident with my car is a small scale example of what makes humans rot ten. People with no social consciences take what they want without caring how it effects those they take from. Crimes like vandalism and stealing give the per petrator a cheap thrill, a short-lived sense of satisfaction or a gain in material pos sessions. However, it takes away far more from the victim. In high school, one of my teachers had a sign in her classroom that said, “The rule of this class is mutual respect.” At the time, I thought it was one of those comy things that all English teachers liked to say. However, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. If everyone in this world had respect for each other, we would have few, if any, problems. However, respect is a two-way street, and that’s where we run into a problem. Everyone wants to be respected, even the guy who broke into my car. But not everyone is willing to be on the giving end of respect. That’s too bad, because if everyone had respect for one another, my car would have one more window that it does right now. I am assuming the lowlife who broke into my car is not reading this. Most peo ple who break into cars probably do not know how to read, and would not want to read a newspaper if they were literate. However, if you broke into my car, and you’re reading this, I’d like to invite you out to dinner and a movie, and then you can come back to my place for an endless beating with tire jack. Nah, it probably wouldn’t work out. But I hope you en joyed the three-quarters you stole from my car. I hope that 75 cents was worth what little dignity and honor you had left, you rotten thief. Phil Watson s a guest colum nist. The Viewpoints editor! can be reached at gamecock [Viewpoints® ',|j hotmail.com ■MfflMMlMlIfW Letters wwHwWBBWBBBWHHWBBHBwHwWwwwwaBwwJiBiiiiiiiM Coaches unite against gambling Dear U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, On February 3, Reps. Lindsey Graham and Tim Roemer introduced the “Student Athlete Protection Act” to close a loop hole in federal law that alloss for the continuation of legal gambling on high school, collegiate and Olympic sporting events in a handful of states. We are writ ing to urge your support for this bill and to ask that you join as a co-sponsor of this legislation. In 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection ACT was enacted to pro hibit gambling on most sporting events. FASPA exempted four states that already conducted, or had enacted legislation that permitted them to conduct, sports gam bling within their jurisdiction. Now, eight years later, there has been a blurring of the line between legal and illegal sports gam bling in this country. Sports gambling has reached the point where it has become so widespread that it is fairly safe to con clude that many do not know that it is an illegal activity in virtually every state in the U.S. This bill will remove any ambiguity associated with betting on college sports by making it illegal to gamble on college games in every state. This will help cuib the destructive and unseemly practice of gambling on the ath letics success of our nation’s young stu dent-athletes. Although rare, the NCAA has experienced more point-shaving and game-fixing schemes in the 1990s than the previous five decades combined. The most significant of these scandals involved mon ey wagered legally in Nevada casinos. The Graham/Roemer bill will aid in preserv ing the integrity of college sporting events and assist in protecting student-athletes from pressures to influence the outcome of a game or contest. This legislation will also eliminate any justification for the publishing of point spreads (betting odds) on college games in our nation’s newspapers. In addition, a ban on all collegiate sports gambling will help curtail the widespread advertising of sports handicappers services (associated with col lege football and basketball) in newspa pers, magazines and on television. If we were to accomplish this goal, we would have solved a good part of the problem. In short, a uniform prohibition will re-sensi tize the public to the corrupting nature of this activity. Finally, Nevada is the only state where collegiate sports gambling occurs. Propo nents of Nevada sports books will argue that regulated sports books pose little threat to the integrity of sports contests and that illegal sports gambling is the culprit. How ever, Nevada gaming regulations clearly recognize the potential danger that legal sports gambling presents. The regula tions not only prohibit Nevada sports books from accepting bets on college athletics events that occur in the state, but they also prohibit gambling on any games of Nevada institutions played outside the state’s borders. Inexplicably, this protec tion does not extend to any of the insti tutions located in the other 49 states. On behalf of the institutions we have had the privilege to coach, we urge you to contact either Rep. Graham or Roemer to cospon sor this legislation. This letter was signed by Lou Holtz and 64 other head coaches at some of the na tion’s largest basketball and football pro grams. I Campus Issues Too manv if projects hurt USC How fortu nate we are as students of this great uni versity to be here during a time of planning, building and expansion. When we’re old and gray, we can look back and re member how when we were at Caroli na, things started to change. Dr. Palms finally realized this university had al ways done things backward and it was _» _ _/"vi Lillie IU oiup. WI1, 11 VS111J Lliai VYC1C IIUC. The university is involved in too many projects and is spreading itself a little too thin. Let’s go back to last year when the university announced that in six months the Russell House parking lot would be afyg patch of grass. It seemed like a cool idea, only, where were we supposed to park? Finding a parking place outside of a garage is already a miraculous achievement, and bulldozing a few parking lots in order to “beautify” the campus won’t make many students happy. Unsurprisingly, however, this project has been put on the back burn er. Kind of like the plan to move the Col lege of Journalism and Mass Communica tions to Petigru. Remember that? The university is proud to have built the new science building next to the Tow ers. Forget that by building it, sopho mores now have to live there if they choose to stay on campus, all for a complex that took three years to build. Why? J’m in my third year here at Carolina and I remember clearly when I was a fresh man waking up to not only the garbage i^n at 4 a.m. (that’s another story) but two horns after that, a persistent jackhammering would result on the new science building. It’s the university's fault I woke up every morning in a rotten mood. Oh yeah, on my daily walk to my room that year, I saw that building fail at least three times. I will never set foot in there. All of this construction mayhem makes me wonder why it takes so long to build something. Every morning, I park my car in Blossom Street Garage. I’m usually late, so I end up parking on the eighth or ninth floor, but as I get out of my car, I see be fore me the roof of the new East Quad. Every morning, I choose to pay attention to what exactly the workers are doing up there. I’ve come to these conclusions^ They either (a) stand, (b) walk around back and forth, then stand, (c) joke with their coworkers about how drunk they got the last weekend, then shout, then stand, or (d) walk around looking for nails that didnt go all the way in, take a hammer and hit it a few times, then stand. No wonder it takes forever for things to get built. But the real mockery is the fact that it is going to cost $2,000 to live there! If the university is so intent on their campaign to keep students on campus, raising the price is not the way to go. A14 percent in crease is just idiotic. Who advises these things? Probably the same person who came up with the bright idea that the®w^ temity houses won’t need kitchens. “Oh, college guys dont’t need kitchens,” they say. Huh? Contrary to popular belief, 1 am living proof that fraternity guys are not neanderthals who do nothing but drink beer and have sex. Sure, those things happen, but not building a kitchen in the houses? Even if all we did was get drunk, where would we put our beer? In the refrigerator in the den? This seems like it’s all part of USC’s plan to take more of our money by making us get a meal plan. Go to any fraternity house in the country, and if you can find one without a kitchen, I’ll vote for A1 Gore in November. Let’s just hope the new Strom Thur mond Fitness Center doesn’t take five years to build. I think it will be real state-of-the art complex that will make USC l(|i gi£. And as long as I don’t witness the new bas ketball arena collapse several times during its construction, I’m sure I’ll enjoy many games in there. But please, guys, if you’re going to build something, do it right and quit standing around. Charlie Wallace is a guest columnist. The Viewpoints editor can be reached at gamecock Viewpoints® hotmail.com